Louisville's Ware speaks for first time since injury

The good news for Louisville's Kevin Ware is that he should recover from his gruesome injury in last week's NCAA regional semifinal.

Rick Pitino stands over Kevin Ware as he is attended to by Louisville trainers.Credit: Getty Images

The good news for Louisville's Kevin Ware is that he should recover from his gruesome injury in last week's NCAA regional semifinal. Now, he and his teammates just have to worry about putting the disturbing incident behind them.

"That's just one of those things I'll never want to see," Ware told ESPN's Rece Davis of the video. "Like when you're a kid and you've got that scary movie that you never want to see. That's just going to be like one of those nightmares I never want to face."

Ware didn't initially realize how severe the injury was. In fact, head coach Rick Pitino told reporters he went over to help Ware up thinking it was nothing serious, until he saw the injury. His teammates were also caught off guard, before trainers could cover the leg. They were seen in complete shock on the court afterward.

"Coach kind of gave it away," Ware said of the severity of the injury. "His eyes got huge."

Ware suffered a compound fracture of his tibia on a seemingly innocuous play in the first half last Sunday, landing awkwardly and snapping the bone due to how he landed. The doctors told him it was simply a freak injury.

"The full force of me jumping so high and not seeing where I was landing caused the actual break," Ware said.

ABC News reported he may have had a previous stress fracture which contributed to the break.

Ware, who underwent surgery on Sunday night immediately after the injury to avoid infection, was released from the hospital Tuesday and is looking forward to joining his teammates in Atlanta, nearby his hometown of Conyers, Ga.

"I just want to win at this point," Ware said. "That would mean so much more to me than anything."

Louisville faces Wichita State on Saturday night in the Final Four.

Follow Metro New York Sports Editor Mark Osborne on Twitter@MetroNYSports.